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January 31, 2005
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| Gov. Tim Pawlenty has proposed a wide-ranging plan to deal with convicted sex offenders in Minnesota, including longer prison terms and more intensive monitoring. (MPR Photo/Laura McCallum) |
St. Paul, Minn. — A year ago, Gov. Pawlenty and lawmakers in both parties expressed outrage over the arrest of a convicted sex offender in the kidnapping and murder of college student Dru Sjodin. The suspect, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., was released from prison after serving a 23-year sentence for a previous sex crime. Rodriguez maintains his innocence in the Sjodin case, and is scheduled to go to trial next year.
Pawlenty says the case exposed flaws in Minnesota's system for dealing with sex offenders.
"Minnesota needs to do a better job as it relates to tracking down, prosecuting, convicting, incarcerating and confining and supervising sex offenders," Pawlenty says.
His latest proposal is more exhaustive than the one he and others pursued in 2004, when legislative gridlock blocked the initiative.
Pawlenty says the most violent offenders should be sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole. He recommends that other violent offenders get open-ended sentences with the possibility of life in prison.
There's widespread support in the Legislature for open-ended sentences for sex offenders. That's a much cheaper option than using civil commitments to keep offenders in secure psychiatric facilities at the end of their prison sentences. Civil commitment costs more than $300 a day, while keeping an offender in prison costs $76 a day.
Still, longer sentences will require more prison beds. Pawlenty wants the Legislature to approve adding 850 beds at prisons in Faribault and Stillwater.
"When the vote comes on who's for more prison space for locking up sex offenders, I think that'll be a pretty compelling argument for the Legislature. It better be," says Pawlenty.
The additional beds wouldn't only be used for sex offenders. The bonding bill that passed the Senate last week includes money for the Faribault expansion, but not for an addition in Stillwater. It includes some planning money for a secure nursing facility to treat aging sex offenders. Pawlenty is calling for nearly $13 million for that facility. He also supports better monitoring of offenders who are released, and more money for treatment programs.
The chair of the Senate Public Safety Budget Division, Sen. Jane Ranum, DFL-Minneapolis, says she questions whether Pawlenty is proposing adequate funding to assess how dangerous offenders are, and to supervise them if released.
"We just need to make sure that we have the tools if some of those people come out," says Ranum. "Because remember, some of them have already been sentenced. Just like Alfonso Rodriguez."
Ranum and other Democrats have criticized the Pawlenty administration for not recommending Rodriguez be civilly committed. Rodriguez was released from prison about five months after Pawlenty took office, but Pawlenty says the decision to release Rodriguez was made prior to his election.
Ranum says she also wants to make sure that Pawlenty's budget doesn't simply restore some of the cuts to probation and assessment programs made two years ago.
Ranum agrees with Pawlenty on longer sentences for sex offenders. And Pawlenty's proposal is very similar to a House Republican plan sponsored by Rep. Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove.
"I do think with the governor's proposal coming out almost identical to House File 1, this is a great step forward," says Zellers.
Zellers and other lawmakers say it's likely the Legislature will agree on sex offender legislation this year. Last year, the issue was one of many that fell victim to legislative gridlock.
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